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In Memoriam Dennis Buechler worked for the Service in various capacities for 31 years prior to his retirement on April 3, 2003, as Federal Projects Coordinator. He started in 1972 as a wildlife biologist in Minneapolis, MN, and subsequently spent time in Green Bay, WI, Washington, D.C., Boise, ID, Portland, OR, Grand Island, NE, and worked for the last 14 years in Lakewood, CO at the Mountain-Prairie Regional Office. Dennis' career was marked by notable achievements in the Platte River Recovery Program, expertise in a multitude of environmental laws, and an incredible ability to work with people inside and outside of the Service. Dennis was awarded a Meritorious Service Award for his work throughout his career in restoration and conservation of rivers, streams and wetlands. As a legacy of Paul Nickerson's 34 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, his colleagues point to his pivotal role in improving the status of rare species in the Northeast, in restoring peregrine falcons and bald eagles, and in curtailing some pesticide use to benefit wildlife. Nickerson retired in January after 28 years as the first and only chief of endangered species for the Northeast Region. Nickerson himself counts among his most satisfying accomplishments eagle restoration work in several states, the peregrine falcon's two-decade recovery from extirpation, and the cooperation among numerous conservation partners to recover and delist Robbins cinquefoil, an alpine plant. A four-hour round-trip commute for the past 11 years from his New Hampshire home to the Regional Office in Hadley, MA, influenced his decision to retire. He has a wife, three grown children and one grandchild. Bev Reitz died of cancer in Seattle on November 14. In 1991, Reitz accepted a term appointment with the Arctic Refuge to help produce a LAND-SAT vegetation map of the coastal plain of the Refuge. She subsequently was hired as a permanent biological technician and did botany work for the Refuge for the next nine years. For the past three years, Bev worked in Outreach and Visitor Services at Arctic Refuge, a job perfectly suited for her friendly, out-going nature. Bev helped plan the first Region 7 Visitor Services Workshop and RIT Conference, ran the Arctic Refuge volunteer program, and led in the Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Coop project with our Canadian neighbors that combined best science and traditional knowledge to nurture understanding of arctic resources and values. Some of her recent activities were planning, organizing and providing leadership for all of the Fairbanks Refuges Centennial outreach events, staffing the Arctic Refuge booth at the Kenai Peninsula Refuges Centennial celebration at the Ninilchik Fair Grounds, and working with Kaktovik school children and teachers for their first ever participation in the Alaska waterfowl calendar contest. Jack "Monty" Millard, passed away on April 28, 2002 in Costa Rica. Although he had officially retired in July of 2001, Monty had been working to establish a conservation foundation in Costa Rica, taking time off on occasion to pursue his lifelong passion for pheasant hunting in the American Midwest. His Service career spanned almost forty years, with the first decades spent working in a variety of fisheries positions across the Midwest and South. During that period he served as President of the Texas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and, while working on cool, warm and cold-water hatchery facilities, developed a broad understanding of, and did much to advance the state of, American fish hatchery management. It was during these diverse assignments, which took him from Texas to North Dakota to Kansas to New Mexico, that Monty not only honed his scientific skills but also developed an impressive ability to work with diverse groups of stakeholders to craft mutually agreeable solutions... solutions that would benefit the local fishery resources as well as the people that enjoyed or relied upon them. He found ample use for both his scientific and his communications skills when he accepted a position as Project Leader of the Fairbanks Fisheries Resource Project in 1989, a job he held until his retirement 12 years later. Dr. Wendell Dodge died at his New Hampshire home in early April of 2003. Dr. Dodge began his career at the Service's Denver Wildlife Research Center in 1960, after receiving his Doctorate at the University of Massachusetts. He then transferred to the Research Center's laboratory for forest animal damage at Centralia, Washington. He served as its director until 1970. Dodge then returned to the University of Massachusetts as assistant unit leader and then leader of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. He retired in 1988.